Sponsor

Sponsor

Ruling makes Iowa a gay marriage destination

The state Supreme Court ruling that
legalized gay marriage has created something unprecedented over the
past year: Iowa as a wedding destination.

That April 3, 2009, decision, followed about three weeks later
by the issuing of marriage licenses, led to 1,783 same-sex weddings
by year's end. Of those, 1,044 of the couples came from outside the
state.

The ruling drew people like Judith Weir and Olly Staneslow of
St. Paul, Minn., who boarded a bus with eight other gay couples
last August and made the 250-mile drive to marry in a Des Moines
church.

"It felt like a huge party all the way," Weir said.

The couple of 17 years said they knew their marriage would have
no legal standing back home but agreed it would have personal
meaning.

They were among 100 Minnesota same-sex couples who wed last year
in Iowa, ranking the state second among those sending gay couples
there to marry. Illinois topped the list at 172.

The top five states were from the Midwest, but people also came
from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and
Texas.

Iowa's new status as a marriage destination prompted Beau Fodor
to quit his job as a Salvation Army event planner and start a
business organizing gay weddings. He's worked with 15 couples so
far, all from other states.

"I just knew it would be a good fit for me," he said.

The Iowa Supreme Court's decision came in a case pushed by the
gay-rights group Lambda Legal. The justices upheld an August 2007
decision that found a state law limiting marriage to a man and a
woman violates constitutional equal-protection rights.

Lambda Legal attorney Camilla Taylor said a marriage license
enables Iowa same-sex couples to make medical decisions for one
another, file state taxes together and have the right to be on the
same insurance policy.

The difference between Iowa and other states is enough to make
Mike Yowell uneasy when he leaves his Council Bluffs home each day
for his job in Omaha, Neb. Yowell and partner Hersh Rodasky have
been together for 29 years and wed April 30.

Yowell said he thinks about the rights he leaves behind with
each morning commute across the Missouri River.

He acknowledges he's sensitive about those rights. When he took
Rodasky to an Iowa hospital a few years ago with chest pains, a
nurse initially refused to let him into Rodasky's room because he
wasn't considered a relative. Hospital supervisors relented when
both men complained.

"Now I don't have to worry about that," Yowell said.

On Saturday, the men will mark the court ruling's anniversary by
joining same-sex couples from Council Bluffs and Omaha. They will
meet at the midpoint of a pedestrian bridge over the Missouri
River, linking Iowa and Nebraska.

Other events are planned to mark the year since the court's
ruling, but some say what has struck them most has been how quickly
gay marriage has gone from extraordinary to mundane.

"You kind of want to say it was huge," said Carolyn Jenison,
executive director for One Iowa, a gay and lesbian advocacy group.
"I remember getting up Saturday, April 4, and walking down the
street and nothing was different. People have continued to do what
they've always done."

For many, though, the court's ruling remains unsettling.

Republican lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to place a proposed
constitutional ban on gay marriage before voters. All three GOP
candidates for governor have spoken out strongly against the
court's decision.

Candidate Bob Vander Plaats has made same-sex marriage one of
his campaign's key issues, promising that as governor he would
immediately issue an order blocking enforcement of the ruling.
Democrats and some Republicans have said such a move would be
illegal.

"The primary issue is the Supreme Court has stepped outside of
its jurisdiction," Vander Plaats said. "I'm just trying to be a
referee on the court and call the proverbial time out when someone
steps out of bounds."

The Iowa Christian Alliance is focusing its efforts against the
ruling on the Legislature.

Norm Pawlewski, the group's lobbyist, acknowledged it would be
at least 2014 before the issue could go before voters because of
rules for amending the state constitution. Democrats control both
chambers and have refused to allow a vote on a referendum, which
would need to be approved by two consecutive general assemblies.

"We're talking three or four years at least," Pawlewski said.
"A lot will depend on what happens in November, whether the
Republicans take over at least one of the houses."

Jason Swaggerty-Morgan, a plaintiff from Sioux City in the
lawsuit leading to the court's decision, says he's not worried
about the law being overturned. He married Chuck Swaggerty-Morgan
last April.

"I have full faith that the people in Iowa believe in
equality," he said.